Razer Seiren V3 Chroma Review
A well-priced and customisable microphone
Verdict
The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma is a solid USB microphone. It offers reasonably clean pickup with good body, as well as convenient connectivity and decent software integration. It looks slick, but falls short of rivals on its noise suppression and the extent of its software-based features.
Pros
- Small chassis takes up little desk space
- Clean pickup
- Plug and play connectivity
Cons
- Noise cancellation isn’t as strong as the competition
- Software isn’t that extensive
Key Features
- Supercardioid pickup patternFeatures a supercardioid pickup pattern that’s ideal for voices and offers reasonably clear pickup
- Plug & play USB-C connectivityThe Seiren V3 Chroma also works with a singular USB-C cable, offering a simple connection.
- Synapse softwareSoftware for offering a sound mixer, as well as controlling RGB lighting.
Introduction
It’s all systems go in the world of microphones at the moment, given we’re seeing popular brands refresh some older models and introduce new ones – the latest of these is the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma, courtesy of, well, Razer.
Alongside the likes of the Logitech Yeti GX and the Audio Technica AT2020USB+, Razer’s latest contender joins a canon of reasonably priced and well specced mics with a lot to like about them. That also goes for its price, too, as the Seiren V3 Chroma is competitive there too, with an asking price of £129.99/$129.99/€149.99.
I’ve been testing the Seiren V3 Chroma to see if it’s any good in what is quite a stiff area of the market, and here are my findings.
Design
- Minimalistic looks
- Convenient controls
- Vibrant RGB lighting
With the Seiren V3 Chroma, Razer has followed a more modern trend in terms of its design, opting for a sleek pill-shaped chassis with an integrated shock mount and grille for a near-seamless look. It’s also quite small at just 211mm tall, meaning it won’t take up too much space on your desk.
The Seiren V3 Chroma’s body is mounted to a sturdy metal stand that doesn’t protrude too much away from the microphone itself, in keeping with its more minimalistic and more modern looks. There is a very small amount of assembly required to screw the stand’s base into the microphone’s otherwise integrated stand, but apart from that. that’s it. Being unscrewed, you could also mount the Seiren V3 Chroma to a more standard threaded boom arm if the desktop stand isn’t right for your setup.
Controls are kept simple and reasonably accessible with a small volume dial on the front side, while a mute button is present on the top side. Both of these controls also can control multiple functions.
For the mute button, double tapping cycles through the RGB lighting presets, while triple tapping turns the RGB on and off. You can also long-press to toggle between changing the microphone gain or monitoring volume, as well as to factory reset the microphone, too. For the dial, things are a little simpler as you can toggle between gain and monitoring here too, with a handy change of colour on the mic’s lighting – it changes to blue for the gain and green for monitoring after a three-second long press. Around the back, there is also a USB-C port for connectivity and a headphone jack for line-in monitoring.
The Seiren V3 Chroma’s RGB lighting is quite sharp, as you’d perhaps expect from Razer. It takes up all the grille area and is a surefire way to add a splash of colour to your setup in one fell swoop. The lighting also has the purpose of acting as a volume level indicator for the Seiren V3 Chroma, with colours ranging from red to green indicating the mic’s gain level.
As for its packaging, the Seiren V3 Chroma comes in a cardboard box with the two components wrapped in bags. There isn’t any plastic present in the packaging, which is excellent to see and is in keeping with Razer’s goals for sustainability where previous products have deviated.
Performance
- Clear pickup, although a little less body
- Iffy noise suppression
- Plug-and-play connectivity is convenient
When bellowed into, the Seiren V3 Chroma offered a reasonably clear pickup that’s also well-rounded, but it does lack a little bit of body and presence compared to its rivals. Its default gain setting is fine, although it did seem a little quiet to my ears. Having the on-board gain control proved handy for turning it up, too, as well as having a digital gain limiter to prevent clipping if you are quite shouty. With that in mind, the Seiren V3 Chroma will also flash at you if you are a bit too loud, to kindly remind you to lower your tone.
Compared to the Yeti GX and SteelSeries Alias though, the Seiren V3 Chroma lacks as good noise suppression at lower volumes, with the noise of my Keychron Q1 Pro coming through alongside my voice. It wasn’t a faint noise either. Speaking at a louder volume did negate this somewhat, drowning the noise of my typing, although it isn’t as effective as either Logitech’s or especially SteelSeries’ option.
Much like the Yeti GX, the Seiren V3 Chroma features a super-cardioid pickup pattern, which makes it a solid pairing for vocal work for either conferencing, streamers or content creation workloads. It’s also a condenser microphone, which reinforces its usefulness for voiceover work. Having its 3.5mm headphone jack on the reverse is especially helpful for zero latency on-board monitoring, and it works plug and play.
Features
- Extensive software customisation
- Stream Mixer function is handy for content creators
- Plenty of scope for customising RGB lighting
The Seiren V3 Chroma also has some additional software with Razer Synapse 3, which has long been Razer’s go-to suite for a range of peripherals, microphones included. Synapse offers an extensive amount of customisation for the Seiren V3 Chroma, spread across three tabs.
The first of these, the Mic tab, is for more basic options, including changing the function of the front dial and mute button, as well as changing the sampling rate and gain settings. Here you can toggle between the Digital Gain Limiter or Auto Gain Control if you don’t want to fiddle with it yourself.
The Stream Mixer tab adds more specialist options into the mix with a similar system to the SteelSeries Alias and its Sonar software where you can choose specific inputs and outputs for sound to be routed through, as well as the individual volume levels. It also contains a hyperlink to the Windows mixer settings for easy access, while adding a new input is also as convenient as selecting it from the corresponding drop-down menu.
There is also a lot of room for customising the Seiren V3 Chroma’s RGB effects in the corresponding Lighting tab. It offers a blend of more simple options such as selecting the colour of the mic’s mute effect, as well as more basic lighting options from a drop-down, as well as more advanced options such as creating your own lighting effects with the Chroma Studio plugin which is installable alongside Synapse.
The Chroma lighting can also be toggled to work as a marker of stream alerts with another piece of Razer software, the Streamer Companion App, which works through Synapse. It’s also compatible with the Key Light Chroma and Kraken Kitty headset lineup if you want a unified system. Essentially, you can program the Seiren V3 Chroma’s lighting to correspond with certain alerts on a stream, such as donations or followers, which is clever. It can also react to moments in supported games, too, which is uniform across Razer peripherals. For instance, if your character is dying in Diablo, it will breathe red, or when you level up, it’ll flash gold. That’s mighty clever.
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Should you buy it?
You want sleek looks
The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma is a sleek microphone with a sleek integrated package that doesn’t take up much desk space. If that’s what you’re after, this is a good choice.
You want the best noise suppression
The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma noise suppression, from ambient noise and keyboard sounds, isn’t as strong as rivals. As such, options from SteelSeries and Logitech will be better.
Final Thoughts
The Razer Seiren V3 Chroma isn’t the best microphone in its category, but it remains a good option for those wanting a stylish and sleek option with decent pickup and software integration. It’s also cheaper than its rivals by a reasonable amount, and constitutes a good mid-range option for content creators and streamers.
Its slick design is a major plus point which doesn’t take up much desk space, while its large smattering of RGB lighting is also handy for those who like that sort of thing. The on-board controls are convenient, as is its plug-and-play connectivity over USB-C. Razer Synapse is also a handy companion for software-based configuration, although it isn’t as extensive in some areas as Logitech G Hub or SteelSeries Sonar.
Compared to its rivals in the Logitech G Yeti GX and the SteelSeries Alias, the Seiren V3 Chroma falls a little short in terms of its vocal quality with less body and worse noise suppression, although I should stress it is still perfectly serviceable for the content creation workloads it’s designed for. Razer’s latest option is a good one overall for most people, although it is bettered by its slightly more expensive rivals.
How we test
During each microphone review, we conduct a series of recording tests that include sampling audio during ideal settings, with background noise applied and in an outdoor setting (where possible), to give you the best idea of how each device performs in real-world use.
Performance tested in a variety of conditions
Tested all available features
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FAQs
Yes, the Seiren V3 Chroma is compatible with Razer Synapse.
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
